1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24
About time spans and right moments, dear brothers,
I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking
of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now
peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon
them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape
for them.
You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in
darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For
you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night
and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an
alert and sober state of mind. Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who
are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness
of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our
head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God himself, however, the
source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and
undivided being,
Spirit
Soul, and
Body
remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the
spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is
who also lets you reach the goal.
3rd Advent Sunday
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-8, 23, 24
The arrival of storms darkens the skies. But there are
moments when the ever-present sunlight breaks through. And then, if we look for
it, the rainbow with its seven colors glistens against the backdrop of
darkness.
In ancient India ,
the god Indra used the rainbow to slay the serpent demon god. Later, in the
Gilgamesh epic, the rainbow’s colors glisten in the fountain of life beside the
tree of Immortality. And of course in Hebrew tradition, Jahwe places the
rainbow spanning the heavens as a promise of future salvation.
The rainbow’s placement in the sky, and our delight in its
ethereal colors make it seem more related to the human soul than to the earth.
In the soul there also lives a rainbow of many colors. The outermost color,
red, is the color of loving warmth, of courage, and of strength of will. At the
other side, the innermost color is a barely visible royal purple, the color of
the regal heights that the human being can and will attain in the future. It is
the color of our innermost trust and faith in what is to come.
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| The Transfiguration |
And in the center, at the heart of the rainbow, is the
living green, the color of balance and of hope, the color of the Christ. Our souls move through the colors. Starting
with Christ’s living, balanced hope of green we can move out into the world
with love and courage. And we can also move from hope’s green toward the inner
depths from which our souls evolve toward the future. We will make it; we will
move into the future; we will evolve. The rainbow is the seal of God’s promise.
For planted in the deep purple of the
soul are the seeds of our future selves. In patient trust we can know that one
day these seeds of our future humanity will sprout into the living green of the
tree of immortality.
God placed the rainbow in the sky to remind all of mankind
to abide in hope, especially in dark stormy times. The rainbow of the soul
conquers the dragon of fear. And sometimes, up in the sky, we can all catch a
glimpse of the colored halo of Him who was, who is, and who is to come.
